The general was neither averse to the opportunity of fighting a battle, if one were given by the enemy, nor did he himself give an opening to them. And so, although he had emerged victorious from a few skirmishes, (and this is where it all turns to custard) he began to regret the soldier less now, either of his own valour or luck, and he himself merited the name of Delayer, and the renown of a great leader.

Can someone help with that middle bit?

And that qua, without the macron. I can't find it anywhere. Whitaker's Words program has it as a pronoun, feminine, nominative, singular, but I can't find it in either of my dictionaries, or Wheelock. Am I blind?

Maybe this // Fortassè hoc:"Therefore when he did emerge victorious from light encounters, it came about* from the soldiery being less indeed dissatisfied with its own power or chance[s]" [i.e., he only fought small battles that he was optimistic about winningid est, proelia sola gessit quae ferre potuit]

aliquem alicuius rei paenitere

* "...it took its beginning/had as its origins/arose that the soldiery was..."

Why can't the qua in that sentence be the shortened form of aliqua? I remember that there is a rule that after "si, nisi, ne, num, quo, ubi, quanto, cum" the "ali" in "aliqu*" is dropped. If that were the case qua would mean aliqua and would refer to occasioni. That part of the sentence might be rendered like: "[...] if any [opportunity] was given by the enemy." Isn't that also a possible solution?

That last quote is almost identical with the one I was having trouble with and I'm wondering if paenitere is being used personally here. "And because he'd been successful in those skirmishes, he was displeasing the soldiery less now, because of his (Fabius's) courage and successes, ...